Purchasing Cel Lots

[benten]

Last year, I made two purchases of Ranma 1/2 cel lots (one of 10 cels and one of 40 cels). This is not the first time I had ever purchased cel groups, but it was the first time I had purchased a lot without seeing every cel up close & personal. In the case of the smaller lot, I was only interested in one specific cell and the lot went cheap enough that I was happy with the result. In the case of the other, the price was reasonable for the general quality of the cels, but I was disappointed to have purchased so many cels of mediocre quality to get the few that I really wanted. I swore that there was to be no more cel lot purchases.

However, a lot of 27 cels from Birdy the Mighty came up on YJ. It had one nice cel of Birdy but I already have more than one sequence mate to that one. However, the lot seemed to have many cels from a fight sequence between Birdy and Ondine (a robot girl, who meets a sad end). But only 4 cels from the lot were completely visible in the auction images. I am very interested in more cels of Ondine, which I didn't think would be of much interest to other bidders. Anyways, I decided to revoke my previous decision to foreswear cel lot auctions and bid and won. Well, the package with the cels has arrived, and it was a disappointment. The fight sequence cels were there, but mostly small, rear views. Well, you win some, you lose some.

I was wondering about the experiences of others with respect to purchasing cel lots. Have you done it? How did it work out? Would you do it again? Have you purchased a lot just to get a specific cel or cels?

[metheus]

I always liked cel lots, you can fill in a series quickly with them. When I was collecting avidly, back in the day, I would try to find those perfect cels(the right the scene, the favorite character, etc.) but I'd also pick up cel lots cheap when I could.

The perfect cels are are cool to have, but a nice mix of mediocre added in helps capture a bit more about the anime. Sort of the random "slice of life" shots that tell a bit more of the story.

Side note: I did note when buying sketch sets for example off of Mandarake, the samples given are probably the highlights of the set. The rest might be unremarkable. So my advice for lots from them, bid on what you see and don't expect much from the unseen other half. There might be some nice surprises on occasion but probably not.

[Drac of the Sharp Smiles]

Personally, I hate bidding on lots. Inevitably you run into someone willing to bid tremendous money for all the stuff they can't see, which I'm really not willing to do. I mean, if it wasn't worth scanning to try to sell the auction, why is it worth a higher bid from me? But unless I bid on the stuff I can't see, I wind up losing the one or two things I DO want.

On the flipside, sometimes a lot contains something that most people wouldn't care about, but which I want. It might not be worth much, however if I wanted to get it, I have to bid against someone who wants the "selling point" piece. Another lousy situation I hate.

My experience is the same as Metheus said with Madarake sketch lots. I'm sure there are people who have gotten something really nice in the stuff that wasn't scanned, but I'm not one of them. Another thing that disappoints me with Mandarake sketch lots is that Madarake counts *copies* in their count of how many pages you're getting, and copies have little to no value to me.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac

[iceman57]

Buying bulks (100/200+ units) is the best deal to negociate a unitary price and save money on the total amount. For Mandarake, generally the 3 pictures are the most notifiable/representative items according to japanese tastes (close up, famous character...). During BWA period you can ask for full scan of a group even in Everyday Auctions (but don't ask too many times or request will be rejected).

[sugarcels]

Have you done it?

Yes, actually. I've done it a few times for sketches and Tonde Buurin cels. A few years ago, there was a seller on Y!J that would sell lots of Tonde Buurin cels, and I couldn't resist them.

How did it work out?

I would say it worked out OK, all of the cels had backgrounds and the scenes were pretty interesting. It helped me fill out my collection for that show pretty quickly!


Would you do it again?

Probably, but the opportunity has never really come up.

Have you purchased a lot just to get a specific cel or cels?

Yes! There has to be at least two cels that I can see in the auction pictures that I know I'd like.

[Keropi]

I've gotten a few cel lots, but I've only bid on what I could see in the auction pictures. The biggest cel lot I got was a ten cel Maison Ikkoku set. That was a nice set, but I could see all the cels in the auction photo.

I've gotten a few other cel lots, but they were never for more than for four or five cels. In those cases I wasn't bidding on all the cels, but only on some of them. Most of the lots were cheap except for the To Heart lot.

I wouldn't want to bid on cels unseen because there's too high a chance of disappointment.

[animeobsessed]

I won a cel lot of about 30 Hunter x Hunter cels on YJ. Yes, I was after a few cels I could see and the lot was fairly inexpensive so it worked out ok. I sold a few of the others, but still have most of them.

Would I do it again, probably if I could buy them for the price I expected to pay for the ones I could see. There were a couple of nice surprises in the lot, but mostly they were ones I wouldn't buy individually.

As for Mandarake auctions, I have got to the point to not expect anything in the unseen sheets. I have been disappointed too many times with their auctions. I consider the 3 showing the best of the bunch and bid how much I would pay for only those showing.

[cutiebunny]

The most cels I've purchased in one auction was three, so, I don't really consider that a lot. As most people have mentioned, if I bid on a lot, it's because I'm interested in a particular cel in it. My interest in that particular cel is what I'm willing to pay, as it's likely that the remaining cels will just sit in a pile.

However, I have bought backgrounds in lots, especially if it's an anime that I'm interested in and the price is reasonable. I did this on my last trip to Japan - I ended up with six large lots of backgrounds from a particular anime. In some cases, they came with original layouts, and in other cases, with partial copy layouts. But, it simply was a matter of the studio not wanting them, and the vendor seeing if he could earn a couple hundred yen out of it.

[jcaliff]

I lot of my Ryu Knight cels came in large lots, as did some of my Nintama cels and a couple of LoGH genga sets. I've been pretty happy with everything I've bought. I've never had much problem with competition for most of the things I collect though.